[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5940-5944]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  FILIBUSTERS AND DELAYS IN THE SENATE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I extend my appreciation to my good friend, 
the senior Senator from the State of Illinois.
  Today is April 15. It is a big, red-letter day for people because it 
is the last day to file your income tax returns. As we send in our 
taxes--and some, as will happen tonight, will wait in line to file 
their tax returns--it is a good time to give thought to the economic 
state of our families and our economy, generally.
  Since President Bush took office, the cost of gasoline has gone up 
more than 100 percent, more than doubled. The cost of home heating has 
skyrocketed. The price we pay for groceries has never been higher.
  The head of the World Bank said, 3 days ago, that 31 countries will 
be in desperate need of food within a matter of months, and there could 
be riots in those countries. We are very fortunate in America, we don't 
have a shortage of food. But people are having trouble paying for the 
food they would like to eat. The same is true for health care, for 
prescription drugs--for college tuition. At the University of Nevada, 
we have a new law school. I was happy to see in the latest rankings it 
came out ranked 78th--a new law school ranked 78th in the Nation. That 
is remarkable. They have done such a good job.
  But they also announced they are going to double the tuition at that 
new small law school--double the tuition. The cost of going to State 
institutions is going up. Why? Because the economies of our States are 
so desperately bad. In the State of Nevada, because of the downturn in 
the economy, the Governor, with the State legislature, has had to cut 
almost $1 billion in programs that are there in the State--road 
construction, new buildings, new programs--and cutting some of the old 
programs. Of course, they have a program to let prisoners out of our 
prisons more quickly, not because it is good for the people of the 
State of Nevada but because they are desperate for money.
  We are paying record prices for nearly everything. Yet the average 
household income has dropped. American families are earning less and 
paying more. The Republican answer, for 7 years, has been to slash 
taxes for the ultrawealthy, to side with big business, oil companies, 
utility companies, and let the little guy fend for himself.
  We have worked hard, as the Democratic Party--first in the minority, 
now in the majority--to cut taxes for the middle class, to end the 
dependence on oil that keeps our gas and heating bills sky high, to 
make health care and college tuition more affordable for families. We 
have now tried for days to quickly pass a highway bill that takes care 
of some of the problems we had in the massive bill we had before. There 
are corrections we would like to make on that. Last Thursday evening, 
the distinguished assistant leader was on the floor, as was the 
assistant leader for the Republicans. We talked about: Why are we 
having another filibuster on this? My friend, the junior Senator from 
Arizona, said: Oh, there will be no filibuster on this, everything is 
going fine--words to that effect. We had to vote last night to invoke 
cloture, and rather than being able to legislate on the bill, we are 
talking on the bill, stalling, wasting time.
  We could have started on this legislation Thursday night. We could 
have legislated all day yesterday and all day today. But, no, we are 
not going to be able to do that. We are going to use the full 30 hours.
  This is a number--it is probably higher than this, but let's assume 
this is right. The last time we came out and said there were 70-plus 
filibusters, they came out and said: Oh, no, not that many, not that 
many. So say 65, for purposes of this discussion.
  In the history of this country previously--and I am going to use 
leader time, not morning business time, Mr. President, during my 
presentation.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator has that right.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, in the entire history of the country, no 
matter what has been going on in this country--and we have been through 
some difficult times--the most filibusters we ever had were 61 or 62 
during a 2-year period of time, during an entire Congress. But now, in 
the first year of this Congress, they broke that record--stalling, 
slowing things down so we cannot legislate the people's business. That 
is because they are protecting the status quo.
  Can you imagine filibustering a bill that is correcting technical 
mistakes made by the two Houses in passing this legislation previously? 
They are filibustering that--commas, semicolons, dotting an ``i,'' 
crossing a ``t,'' that is what we are doing, that is what this 
legislation is all about, technical corrections--supported by the 
ranking member, Senator Inhofe, and the chairman, Senator Boxer. They 
are filibustering this, making us use all the time.
  Some may ask why they are doing this. The main reason is they are 
protecting the status quo. Time after time, Republicans seemed intent 
on obstruction only for obstruction's sake. They pursued this course on 
legislative matters large and small. It doesn't have to be, as they 
have done many times, stopping us from moving forward on matters 
relating to Iraq--many times. Let's consider that a big issue. But 
let's consider what we are doing today a small issue--technical 
corrections on a bill.
  Look what is going on in the country today. Look what is going on in 
the world today. We listen to the news or find it in the newspaper. 
Today in Iraq--scores of people killed in Iraq. Bombs here, bombs 
there, two American soldiers killed in Iraq yesterday. We have learned 
2.7 million people are displaced in Iraq. That is Iraqis. The 
population is only 25 million people to begin with and 2.7 million of 
them are wandering around trying to find a place to live in Iraq. About 
3 million have left the country. They have blocked us from doing 
anything about that.
  We had General Petraeus talk about what is going on in Iraq. He 
didn't answer the question: Are we any safer now than we were before 
this Iraq war

[[Page 5941]]

started, before the surge started? No answer to that. When are we going 
to get our troops home? No answer to that. They have even gone forward 
on tactics delaying matters on legislation they ultimately came to 
support--stalling for time.
  The most unfortunate aspect of Republican strategy is real people 
suffer because of it. Why do I say that? There are a lot of things we 
need to do as a country. We have, now, a big merger that took place 
making big business even bigger. Delta Airlines has joined with 
Northwest. They will have 75,000 or 80,000 employees. Now there is talk 
of United joining with other companies. We have heard Southwest 
Airlines--they were flying airplanes that were in bad shape, but they 
did it anyway.
  We have learned in recent weeks the Federal Aviation Agency is 
protecting the airlines and not the consumer. We have a bill we need to 
do, FAA reauthorization. We need to do that bill. We would like to 
bring up that bill, but we cannot because we are being stalled on a 
technical corrections bill--only stalling for time.
  Veterans health care--Senator Akaka has asked for months: Why can't I 
bring up my bill? Every time, I say to him: Senator Akaka, we are doing 
our best, but they stalled us on this and they stalled us on that. That 
is something we want to do this work period, as we do the FAA 
legislation.
  There is an important piece of legislation--genetic 
nondiscrimination. A lot of things are happening in medicine. We have 
the ability to look at people and find out what their genes are going 
to forecast for the future. But we don't want, as a result of advances 
in medical care and treatment in this regard, to have someone who may 
be prone to getting some disease 10 or 15 years from now be 
discriminated against in the workplace. This is an important piece of 
legislation, and it is being held up; we can't get to that.
  Flood insurance--we want to be able to do this. It is important to 
the American people. We hear a lot about the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency. What they deal with more than anything else--more 
than earthquakes, tornadoes, fires--is floods. Flooding is the most 
devastating natural disaster we have every year in America, and we want 
to do something to have the flood insurance program in this country 
mean something. We saw the never-ending litigation in Louisiana and 
Mississippi and Alabama as a result of Katrina. One of the reasons for 
that litigation is the legislation was not clear. It was not good 
legislation. We need to change that.
  Food safety? My friend from Illinois has been working for a long time 
to do something about food safety--what can we do to make it better, so 
that when you go to a fast-food restaurant, you don't get salmonella; 
if you get a steak, it is OK. Has it been inspected? We have not been 
able to legislate in that regard.
  It is disheartening to recognize and realize what we are not able to 
do, as a result of the Republicans wanting to maintain the status quo. 
Why can't we go through this piece of legislation, let Senator Boxer 
move forward on completing it, and then go to one of the other matters. 
There are a lot of other matters we need go to. I have only mentioned a 
few of them.
  When I go home, people ask: Why aren't you getting more done? I tell 
them the Republicans are stalling, they want the status quo. Here is a 
perfect illustration, I say to my friends who have asked that question. 
Why are we being asked to waste valuable Senate time--that is all we 
have is time--valuable Senate time on something that is so unnecessary. 
We are waiting here. We came in at 10. The Republicans say we can't go 
to the bill; they want to go to their caucus and discuss what they want 
to do on the technical corrections bill.
  I hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle, the 
Republicans, would let us start legislating. After we passed the 
stimulus bill for housing, I thought we could enter into a program 
where we would start doing that. I do not know what they could talk 
about in their caucus about how difficult this particular technical 
corrections bill is. I said we are not going to fill the tree, which 
means they can offer amendments. Let them offer amendments. We invite 
them to offer amendments. But let's move forward on this legislation.
  The Republican filibusters of this Congress, 65, is recordbreaking. 
They should be proud of that. We invoked cloture on more than 65 of 
those issues. We are still counting. Today is one of those counts that 
continue. I am very disappointed that we are being stalled again on 
something as insignificant as a technical corrections bill on highways.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, will you alert me when I have spoken 10 
minutes in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator will be notified.
  Mr. DURBIN. A filibuster is a way to stop the Senate from acting. A 
filibuster is an effort to make sure the Senate does nothing. You saw 
the movie with Jimmy Stewart, ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'' He took 
to the floor as a freshman Senator and stood there speaking in a 
filibuster until he collapsed in physical exhaustion.
  Well, it does not quite happen that way anymore. What happens, of 
course, is someone says: I am going to stop the Senate, and you are 
going to have to come up with 60 votes to stop me.
  Well, Democrats have 51 votes in this current Senate; the Republicans 
have 49. So anytime we want to move forward with a piece of legislation 
to which a Republican Senator objects, we need their help to stop a 
filibuster. They know that.
  So their strategy this year has been to slow us down to a crawl so 
nothing happens and to make sure when something comes up that they 
think might be a delicate vote for them to face, they start a 
filibuster. Then we cannot come up with 60 votes, and we move on to 
something else.
  The net result of this filibuster strategy from the Republican side 
of the aisle is that critically important issues, such as the ones 
mentioned by the majority leader, cannot be addressed in the Senate. 
The House passes important and timely legislation and sends it over, 
and the Republican strategy on this side is to stop anything from 
happening.
  Look at the issues we are facing in this country. The Senator from 
California is here. She is the chairman of the Environment and Public 
Works Committee, and this committee is considering critical legislation 
on the question of global warming. This is important for us as a 
nation. It is important for our planet. And we know when this critical 
legislation which has now been reported from her committee comes to the 
floor, we will face a string of filibusters.
  That is part and parcel now of the procedure in the Senate. But you 
say: Well, wait a minute. That is a big issue. Global warming is a 
controversial issue with some. You expect some political controversy. 
Right?
  Well, accepting that argument, I then have to ask you: Why were we 
involved in a filibuster until last night by the Republicans on the 
bill before us today? This is a technical corrections bill. When we 
passed the highway bill, the Federal highway bill years ago, it was a 
huge bill affecting the entire United States of America. Then, as we 
combed through it, word for word, line for line, page for page, we 
found there were technicalities that needed to be changed: punctuation, 
references to a road instead of a trail. You find them in here. They go 
on for hundreds of pages.
  But they are technical in nature; it is not a big policy debate. This 
kind of bill usually passes in the Congress by a voice vote late at 
night and no one notices. It is housekeeping. That is ordinarily what 
we do when we try to catch up and make sure everything is done just 
right.
  Senator Boxer has worked long and hard to bring it out of her 
committee and bring it to the Senate floor, and the Republicans 
initiated a filibuster against the technical corrections bill.

[[Page 5942]]

That is like having a resolution to salute motherhood and having them 
initiate a filibuster. Where is the controversy? There is no 
controversy in this bill. If they want to offer amendments, we said on 
this side: If they are germane amendments to the bill, have at it. That 
is what the Senate is all about, after all.
  But the Republican strategy of filibusters, as indicated by this 
chart, in the history of Congress, the minority party has initiated no 
more than 57 filibusters in any 2-year period of time. That is the 
record, 57 in 2 years.
  So far in this Congress, we are barely a few months into the second 
year. The minority party, the Republicans, has initiated 65 
filibusters, and we are still counting.
  You say to yourself: Well, they must have been some pretty 
controversial issues they had to filibuster. A technical corrections 
bill? So why do they filibuster? So that we burn the clock and eat up 
days so we cannot address the issues that are even more important to 
this country.
  Would it not be great for us as a Senate to consider and debate a 
national energy policy to bring down the price of gasoline in the 
United States? No way. The Republicans insist on filibustering a bill 
that focuses on punctuation. Would it not be timely for us to consider 
the cost of health insurance to businesses and families across America 
and find a way to make it more affordable and accessible? No way. The 
Republicans want to debate a bill which changes the word ``trail'' to 
``road'' and filibuster it.
  That is the reality. And time and again when we have brought up 
issues, the Republicans have initiated a filibuster in this Congress. 
You cannot read this; I can barely read it. It is a list of the 
Republican filibusters so far in this Congress, 65 and still counting.
  Let me give you a couple of examples, if I can, of the egregious 
Republican filibusters in this Congress. We had a bill to implement the 
9/11 Commission Report to fight terrorism in America--filibustered by 
the Republicans.
  We had a bill authorizing the intelligence agencies to make America 
safer--filibustered by the Republicans.
  We had a bill for court security so that judges and their families 
would be safe when they are at work or at home--filibustered by the 
Republicans.
  We had a water resources bill to deal with the infrastructure of 
America and create good-paying jobs right here at home--filibustered by 
the Republicans.
  The Clean Energy Act, an effort to use renewable, sustainable energy 
to reduce pollution and stimulate the needs of our economy--
filibustered by the Republicans.
  The CHIP reauthorization bill, a bill for health insurance for poor 
children across America, not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, not 
lucky enough to have health insurance--filibustered by the Republicans.
  The economic stimulus package to get this country out of the 
recession and moving--filibustered by the Republicans.
  A Consumer Products Safety Commission overall to stop toys with lead-
based paint from coming into this country from China--filibustered by 
the Republicans.
  GOP used to stand for Grand Old Party. That is what the Republicans 
called their party, the Grand Old Party. But when it comes to the 
Republicans in the Senate, GOP stands for ``Graveyard of Progress.'' 
They want to stop this Senate from making any progress on critical 
issues for this country. They want to run out the clock by 
filibustering a technical corrections bill.
  There is only one remedy for this. It comes in November. The American 
people will have a chance to speak then. They can initiate a filibuster 
which the Republicans will hear. They can speak long and loudly and 
clearly that it is time for change in this Senate. The old ways of 
Washington dominated by special interest groups really hidebound to the 
partisanship that will not even let us bring up these technical 
correction issues has to change.
  Voters in this country have the last word in November to elect agents 
of change, people who will make a difference for improving this 
country.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask that you notify me when I have gone 
10 minutes in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator will be so notified.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I, too, rise in strong support of the 
transportation technical corrections bill. First, I commend my friend 
and colleague, Senator Boxer, on her hard work and leadership in 
putting in these corrections.
  I thank Leader Reid for his determination to get this act through the 
body. Yet it seems our colleagues across the aisle will stop at nothing 
to obstruct our efforts which will improve the lives of working 
Americans who struggle to make ends meet and filibuster a comma, 
filibuster an exclamation point, filibuster the name change of a road 
to a way.
  What is going on here? What is going on? Well, I have two points I 
would like to make. But first I ask my colleagues across the aisle, is 
there any topic that you will not filibuster? If you will filibuster a 
technical corrections bill, name changes, punctuation changes, 
corrections in terms of where the miles were supposed to be and where 
they are, what will you not filibuster?
  Now, let's talk about two things. First, this bill is a win-win for 
the American people. We are entering a recession. We all know we need 
to prime the pump. Many of us believe we should have a large public 
works spending program. But the question is, Should we pay for it or 
should we not?
  But in the SAFETEA-LU bill, this technical corrections bill, the 
money is already allocated. It cannot be spent because of some 
nonpolitical small error in the drafting. So this bill makes those 
corrections and hundreds of projects can sally forth and employ people 
with no particular cost to the Federal Government. Who could object to 
that? Do my colleagues want to tell the construction workers and those 
who have little diners and lunch places and restaurants where 
construction workers eat, and those who supply the construction 
industry: Heck with all of you, we are filibustering.
  So on the merits it makes no sense to block this bill--on the merits. 
I have to say this to our minority leader: I know there are probably 
Members on his side who say: I want something else. I do not want to 
let this bill go through. There is a larger obligation. If we let every 
single Member of the other side of the aisle paralyze this body, then 
we are doing America a disservice.
  I would plead with the minority leader to tell his individual 
Members: You do not have--each one of you does not have veto power over 
anything, particularly something as trivial as this.
  So why is this happening? That is the second point I wanted to 
address. I will tell you why. The other side is basically paralyzed. 
They have no program for America. They have no agenda for America. They 
do not know what to say except the old nostrums that were rejected 
years and years and years ago. They cannot say yes and so they try to 
show some kind of position. They just say no. That is what is going on 
here. It is the internal problem on the other side of the aisle, the 
hard right versus the right, versus the mainstream versus the 
moderates. They are all in a knot, and they cannot come to an agreement 
on anything, even a technical corrections bill that everyone has agreed 
to on the substance.
  So the only thing that can unify them is a two-letter word: N-o.
  Well, let me say that to allow any single Member to obstruct this 
bill is not living up to what the Senate is all about. It is not living 
up to what America is all about. It is not living up to what democracy 
is all about. Our leader has not said you cannot amend. Our leader has 
not said you cannot debate. I know there are a few Members on the other 
side of the aisle who believe there may be changes made. Let them 
debate it and let's vote.
  But, no, the answer is only no. It has not been only on this bill. My 
friend and colleague from Illinois went through a long list of bills 
that are even more consequential than this one.

[[Page 5943]]

Now, this one is not inconsequential. The changes are inconsequential, 
but the results are consequential. Again, it will employ thousands of 
people and release millions of dollars that have already been paid for 
to do worthy projects.
  That, nobody disputes. But instead we have 65 filibusters already; 57 
is the record--65 and going up. The filibuster used to be used on 
issues of major importance. It is now being used for everything, even 
the changing of punctuation and spelling, misspellings. Why? Because 
the only thing that unifies the other side is the word ``no.''
  Well, the American people, come November 2008, are going to say 
``no'' to the other side.
  They are going to say: No more of this obstruction. We are going to 
give our side the number of votes we need to move forward, because 50 
votes is not enough. Sixty is the need. This temporary refuge in the 
word ``no'' of a false unity will only be temporary.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor, along with the 
majority leader and my colleagues, to express our extreme frustration 
with what the minority, the Republicans are doing to block basic bills 
from getting through the Senate. We are trying to move to debate and 
offer amendments on a basic bill that needs to be done, called a 
technical corrections bill for transportation projects, changing minor 
things in the law so it can move forward. Normally this bill is done 
late at night; everyone agrees to it; there is no objection; it moves 
on; it takes only a few hours of time. It has gone through a lot of 
work in committee, which Senator Boxer chairs. They have done all their 
homework. It has passed on a bipartisan basis, and it was approved by 
the Senate late last night as a procedural move. But we are here today, 
spending hours and hours with no ability to move forward, no ability to 
offer amendments, no ability to pass it, because the Republican 
minority has decided to filibuster this bill.
  I go home every week, 2,500 miles away from here to the State of 
Washington. People come up to me and say: What are we going to do about 
the rising cost of health care? What are we going to do about the fact 
that fewer and fewer doctors are seeing seniors going into Medicare? 
What are we going to do about veterans waiting in line to get the care 
they have been promised? What are we going to do about the housing 
crisis? What are we going to do about Iraq and the President's request 
for $109 billion more? In Washington, Boeing workers come up to me and 
say: What are we going to do about a procurement process that has 
allowed our military to send $40 billion to a European-owned company, 
our tax dollars, at a time when our economy is struggling, to a 
European-owned company to start producing the backbone of our military, 
our air tankers? What are we going to do about that?
  These are issues that we as Democrats want to bring to the floor and 
have major debates on, move legislation forward. They will take time. 
There is disagreement. Growing up in Washington State, when somebody 
said there is a filibuster, I assumed it was a major argument of the 
day. We would rush to find out what it was about and see which Senators 
were arguing which way and wonder in what direction this would change 
our country in the future.
  We are a long way from that today. The filibuster is now being used 
as a delaying tactic so we won't get to those critical pieces of 
legislation, those critical debates we ought to be having in the 
Senate.
  Republicans have engaged in an historic, record-setting level of 
obstruction over the last 14 months. They haven't filibustered the 
bills themselves, but they have filibustered motions to proceed to 
basic bills that we need to pass to keep Government running. They have 
delayed us from moving forward even after voting in favor of these 
bills. That is where we find ourselves today. Once again, Republicans 
have decided to keep us from moving forward simply to delay progress. 
They don't oppose the legislation. In fact, after filing cloture on the 
motion to proceed last Thursday and waiting the obligatory 30 hours, 
last night the Senate voted, and 93 Senators wanted to move this 
legislation forward. So why are we sitting here today delaying 30 more 
hours before Senators can even start to offer amendments, if they so 
choose, so that we can then move the bill to final passage, unless, of 
course, we have to file a motion to end debate and get to another 
filibuster of 30 hours, which will take a lot more time.
  We have seen this before. It is about delaying. It is about not 
allowing America to move forward. It is about not allowing progress. 
The word ``filibuster'' gets thrown around a lot here. People think of 
``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' and the movie appears in their head. 
That is the most celebrated version of a filibuster. But there are all 
kinds of filibusters. We have learned that firsthand, because at the 
core a filibuster is any procedural move to delay the Senate. Any one 
Senator has the power to delay us. The majority and the minority have 
the power to talk to Members and say: This is important to enough of us 
that we need to move past those objections and begin to move this 
forward. We need to work toward an agreement so we can move forward.
  Time and time again we have seen people use delays on motions to 
proceed, and then the Senate has to wait 30 hours, 30 long hours with 
people such as me sitting out here talking on the floor on 
miscellaneous subjects until we can finally get through 30 hours so we 
can then be on the floor for hours waiting for Senators to offer 
amendments. That kind of delay has forced this Senate in this Congress 
for over a year now into weeks and weeks and weeks of wasted time. No 
wonder the American people think nothing is getting done in Washington. 
We are seeing delay after delay. Believe me, we are all frustrated that 
we cannot get to those important topics of the day, to be able to have 
perhaps a real filibuster on a real issue that is important, that would 
change the direction of this country. That is what a filibuster ought 
to be about. But here we have to file cloture on the motion to proceed 
to basic bills. We have had to file procedural motions on whether to 
follow the 9/11 Commission recommendations, which then passed 97 to 
nothing, once we got through all of those hours of waiting around. On 
the intelligence authorization bill, we had to file a motion to proceed 
to the bill, had to wait the 30 hours, and then the vote was 94 to 3. 
So a couple of Senators forced an entire Senate to wait 30 hours and 
not get anything done. Bill after bill I could list a desire on the 
part of the minority to delay progress.
  What we are seeing is Republicans who are united for obstruction on 
issue after issue. Month after month, Republicans have put delay before 
debate, procedure above progress, and obstruction before solutions.
  The American people, certainly in my State of Washington, want us to 
move forward and deal with the issues critical to their families. They 
are struggling today with the economy. They are worried about their 
ability to retire. They are worried about being able to send their kids 
to college. Certainly, our men and women who have gone to fight the war 
in Iraq are coming home and facing delays. Yet we can't get a veterans 
bill up on this floor because of the delays we are seeing.
  Here we are today, waiting around to vote on a technical corrections 
bill to a transportation bill that ought to take a few minutes.
  It is a sad day in the United States. I hope our colleagues will talk 
to their leaders and say: We need to move on. It is time to get the 
business of this country done. That is our job.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.

[[Page 5944]]

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, could the Chair tell me what the current 
state of the parliamentary situation is right now?

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